“Police didn’t rescue us, we paid ransom for our release,” – Bako, Kaduna PFN chairman

The Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) Kaduna chapter, Apostle Emmanuel Egoh Bako, who was abducted alongside his wife has said that a ransom of N4.5 million was paid to secure their release from kidnappers.

Recall that the cleric and his wife Cindy were kidnapped by gunmen along the Afana-Fadan Kagoma-Kwo road in Kafanchan, Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State on Friday, December 26. The PFN chairman and his wife regained their freedom 48 hours later.

But Bako has debunked claims by the Nigerian police rescued him. He said,

“A ransom of N4.5 million was paid for my wife and me. It was not the police that rescued us; even the kidnappers said the police would start lying that they rescued us, there were no police.

“We were far gone before the police came, they just stopped at my house; they didn’t even go beyond the fence of my house. Up till this moment, no police have called me, so how can the police say they rescued us? They couldn’t even trace us. Even soldiers couldn’t have located us, the terrain is too harsh, they can only locate us with the use of technology, no police showed up. God just brought us out,” Bako stated.

“I am reachable, I’m accessible, the police should have called me or come to my house. Since they came the day I was kidnapped, they’ve not come back to check on my children or the situation. They just sit in their office and make statements. It angers the people because people know the truth.

“The government should try to get information from the grassroots and not just sit in the office and draft imaginary statements because the people who go through the experience know what happened and when they hear something different, it angers them. The security agents should go to the grassroots.

Bako said the ransom was paid by concerned individuals who were sympathetic enough about securing his release.

“These individuals were not even members of my church but people I had impacted their lives at one point or the other. The kidnappers initially demanded a ransom of N20 million. Then they brought it down to N15 million, then N10 million, and then N7 million then. Eventually they put it at N4.5m,” he told Sahara Reporters.